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I'd noticed a poster when we were last in Kanchanaburi, looking for volunteers to teach English at a school in a small Village called Nong Khao. As it was school holidays at the time we were there, we were able to join in with their English camp. We spent 2 days at the school, and along with 5 Danish girls, assisted in their activities.
During the first day we played a lot of games and incorporated everyday English words into them. Having not done anything like this before, it was a bit daunting at first, but after a few hours, the kids became more enthusiastic and it was really enjoyable. The group was all girls (which disappointed Stu and I as we'd taken the football to play a Villa v United game with the boys - not to be!) of varying ages and abilities but they all seemed to pick up the basics fairly well - better than my Thai anyway!
The people at the school were so nice and welcoming, and were disappointed we could only stay for 2 days. The teacher was telling me that the children in the village have no motivation to learn English because their families are all farmers, so they go straight into work there or in factories. Children in the village as young as 12 spend their entire summer holidays working all day in factories to provide for their families. The Government wage for a Thai teacher at the school is about 160 Baht a day, which is just over 2GBP - teachers at home, count yourselves lucky!
Our second day consisted of a bike ride around the village which was really enjoyable and informative, we got to see the way people in a Thai village really live, not something you'd ever get on a tour. We got to try our hand at cooking sweet rice cracker, looked around local houses and went to an Onyx factory, helping the kids with phrases and words in their exercise books along the way.
After lunch, we spent about an hour and a half writing out our details for all the girls as they queued up by us - about the only time I'll ever feel like I'm famous with girls queuing up for my name!!! It was a really enjoyable and thoroughly rewarding 2 days being at the school and we were really sad to be going. Unfortunately we had to move on to Chang Mai that night, so we said our goodbyes, but have been invited back whenever we want. If anyone reads this who might be interested, I can pass on the details to you, they'd love any help people can give.
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